Creativity to me

While probably not completely true, I feel as though my experience with creativity is somewhere between completely lacking and non-existent.  When I think of the word “creative,” I immediately think about it in terms of artistic ability.  I have never considered myself a creative person. As I become more self-aware, I realize both the importance of creativity and the breadth of creativity.  Creativity is thinking outside of the box and solving problems – whether it is analyzing financial statements, creating product design, or taking photographs.  I wish to develop a better understanding of where I stand in terms of my natural ability (strengths and weaknesses) and how I can improve my ability to think creatively.  That all being said - I have no idea where to start. 

The WSJ article claims creativity is a skill that can be acquired. As we discussed in class, I have always felt creativity was something you either had or you did not have.  I think to a certain extent that is still true, especially if creative thinking was not cultivated, experimented with and embraced from a young age.  I also think fear of failure plays a big role in my willingness to take risks and think outside the norms. 

Creativity in the Organization

Since graduating college, I have worked at small companies within the financial services industry.  Small companies tend to be much more entrepreneurial in spirit.  On the flipside, because resources are often spread more thinly, they must be careful about taking risks.  This can limit creativity.  At the time, I did not recognize that coming up with new operating procedures, policies, etc. was actually a creative process.  In retrospect, a lot of what we were doing was creative – creating something out of nothing. 

Company culture plays a big role in an employee’s willingness to take risks and be creative.  Culture is influenced by everything from the type of people hired to how a company socializes employees once they are on-boarded.  Levels of openness and risk-taking as well as how companies deal with mistakes all influence an employee’s willingness to share creative ideas.  If employees know they can step outside their comfort zones without being judged or punished, they are more likely to take creative risks.   It is essential for leaders to set the tone and cultivate creativity within an organization.

Creativity: Alone or together

I personally think I am more creative in a group setting.  I prefer to have different opinions, ideas, and suggestions and work together to come up with something more evolved than the first idea.  Group work alleviates the fear of failure that is so personal when it is your idea alone. 

It is also important to think about the drawbacks that group work can create.  As discussed in this article, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/15/opinion/sunday/the-rise-of-the-new-groupthink.html?pagewanted=all, there are merits to working and processing things alone.  It reduces peer pressure and mimicking that often occurs in group settings.  “Research strongly suggests that people are more creative when they enjoy privacy and freedom from interruption. And the most spectacularly creative people in many fields are often introverted, according to studies by the psychologists Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Gregory Feist. They’re extroverted enough to exchange and advance ideas, but see themselves as independent and individualistic. They’re not joiners by nature.”  I find this extremely interesting considering the emphasis placed on group work in academia and the professional world, as well as my personal preference for working in groups.  With a continued emphasis on group work, it will be interesting to see if and how opinion changes over the next decade. 

Creativity: Nature vs. Nurture

In the article How To Be Creative  Jonah Lehrer discusses the need to think about creativity differently, leverage diverse experiences, take risks, and understand the need to use different creative tools depending on the circumstances. The discussion about epiphanies versus sweat and failure was very interesting.  I agree that different types of problems require different creative approaches.  As mentioned in the article, the ability to identify when to use which type and more complicated, whether we actually have the right resources to solve the problem is a big issue.  How long do you work through problems before changing directions, acquiring more and different resources, or giving up?  One key is being passionate about your work.  To struggle and persevere, passion must be in the equation.